1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a storage pack used primarily within a storage rack designed to accommodate singular or multiple types of information storage media or materials such as computer or micrographics tapes and cartridges.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is necessary to store large quantities of computer and graphic information storage media of all kinds in such a way that the stored items may be quickly located and retrieved. For maximum storage density, it is also necessary to provide a means to secure more than one type of media in packs having a common relationship when they are placed in a high density storage rack.
Prior art media storage packs, such as those produced from metal or molded plastic, have several limitations. The most severe limitation is a lack of flexibility for the storage of new computer and optical media being introduced into the market at an ever increasing pace. Recent technical developments have produced numerous competing storage schemes of a proprietary nature for data storage and retrieval. This has meant that an increasing variety of media cassettes, disks and storage mechanisms are being marketed for the storage of large volumes of data. Thus, different varieties and sizes of media are difficult to store in a uniform manner and with maximum space efficiency, especially when media packs are placed into a high density rack system.
In the recent history of large computer users, many such users have converted their media type from that of large reels of tape and removable disk arrays to one using a fairly standard cartridge design. This standard cartridge design led to the development, by those skilled in the art, of several types of packs for the storage of this single size of cartridge. However, among competing pack designs, the one constant element was the space required for this standard cartridge whose outer dimensions did not vary in any significant manner from cartridge manufacturer to cartridge manufacturer. Recently introduced internal improvements to this standard cartridge have not changed the exterior cartridge dimensions or the space required for its storage in a pack.
With the introduction of very new media, having generally, but not universally, reduced dimensions, the compartments created in packs produced for the storage of the previously standard cartridge would often suffice. However, since newer computer media tends to be progressively smaller, a significant amount of volumetric waste is created when smaller media is stored in a pack area designed to hold larger media Also, some of the newest media, particularly that of an optical nature, often has one or two dimensions that grossly exceed the dimensions of the previously standard cartridge. Thus, new media might not be able to fit in the standard spaces of a previous pack. In any event, those wishing to store large quantities of newer media usually were faced with the purchase of entirely new packs and/or storage racks plus having a very limited monetary value that might exist in obsolete packs and/or storage racks.